NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team built a 9-4 halftime lead and held off a late Richmond rally to beat the Spiders 14-13 on Sunday at the Loftus Sports Center. Junior Kathryn Perrella and freshman Danielle Shearer each scored three goals to lead the Irish, who improve to 3-0 with the win. Richmond scored three goals in the final 2:14 of the game and pulled within one goal with 17 seconds left before sophomore Tina Fedarcyk won the final draw to run out the clock. The Irish return to action against 16th-ranked Syracuse on Thurs., March 16, at 6:00 p.m., in Cocoa Beach, Fla. Notre Dame also beat Richmond 14-13 last year in a double-overtime victory in Tampa, Fla.

Richmond built an early 4-2 lead at the 12:22 mark of the first half before Notre Dame scored the final seven goals of the first half, including five in the last 2:10 and three in the last 36 seconds. Sophomore Kathryn Lam tied the game at 4-4 at 5:42 to spark an offensive explosion to end the first half. Freshman Kelly McCardell’s first career goal gave the Irish the lead for good at 2:10. Notre Dame then won a series of draws and then netted quick transition scores from sophomore Natalie Loftus, Perrella, Shearer and another by McCardell with three seconds left in the first half to lead 9-4.

The teams twice traded goals in the first five minutes of the second half before Richmond started to chip away at the 11-6 lead. After junior Lael O’Shaughnessy scored a free-position goal with 16:01 left in the game, the Spider defense kept the Irish scoreless for the next 13 minutes to pull within 13-10. After Shearer scored Notre Dame’s final goal at 2:58, Kristy Gallagher, Carrie Aitken and Katie Dolan each scored to pull Richmond to 14-13 but Fedarcyk helped the Irish seal the win by controlling the final draw.

Notre Dame finished with a 34-28 advantage in shots, 22-11 in groundballs and 17-12 in draw controls. Freshman goalkeeper Katie Borokovich had 11 saves for Richmond, while junior Tara Durkin had four saves for the Irish.